Carlos Pena Jr.
Carlos Pena, Jr. (born August 15, 1989) is an American actor, dancer and singer. He is best known for starring on the Nickelodeon series Big Time Rush as Carlos. Pena was born in Columbia, Missouri. He has three brothers named Antonio, Javi, and Andres. He was raised in Weston, Florida. His father is Sanish/Venezuelan and his mother is Dominican. He attended Sagemont Upper School. His first major role was a guest shot at age 15 on ER, followed later that year by guest-starring roles on Judging Amy, Summerland, and Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide. He appeared in local productions of Grease and Man of La Mancha. He also had a role in the American Heritage School, where he attended before leaving to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career, production of Titanic. During his run in Titanic he fell in love with singing and dancing. While still in high school, Pena appeared in television commercials for the Super Soaker brand recreational water gun, and his image even appeared on the toy's packaging. In 2007, he appeared as a contestant on MTV's Making Menudo series. Pena and his mother commuted between South Florida and Hollywood, California, to accommodate his television acting roles, and he was homeschooled during this time. He returned to The Sagemont School where he starred in shows like "Grease", "Les Miserable", "Little Shop of Horrors" (which landed him a South Florida Cappie nomination for Lead Actor in a Musical), and "Once Upon a Mattress". He received his high school diploma from The Sagemont School in 2008. After graduating from high school, he attended the Boston Conservatory. Pena was studying music at the Boston Conservatory when his manager urged him to audition for Big Time Rush. Although he was reluctant to do so, he submitted an audition tape and won the role a month later. Pena moved to Hollywood in August 2009. Big Time Rush Big Time Rush is an American pop singing group that formed in 2009. The group consists of Kendall Schmidt, James Maslow, Carlos Pena, Jr., and Logan Henderson, all on vocals. In 2007, Nickelodeon was casting and looking for people to be in a new group to be in a new sitcom called Big Time Rush. Pena and Logan Henderson sent in their audition tapes and were accepted to be Carlos Garcia and Logan Mitchell over thousands of other boys. Kendall Schmidt won the role of Kendall Knight over many other people because of the difficult decision of casting him over others. James Maslow sent in his audition tape when his desire was in singing and acting. He got the role of James Diamond 2 years later. The boys have recorded many songs including the theme song of the name title as the show, "Any Kind Of Guy", "The City Is Ours", "Halfway There", "Famous", "Shot in the Dark", and "Stuck". Additional songs will be released throughout the show's first season. They and Nickelodeon are planning on releasing an album of a few songs from the first season of the show and new songs. The album was released on October 11, 2010. Filmography Reference When I was Younger As a Young kid little boy 12 year old boy Mazi Adams new friend Carlos Pena Jr's